EPISODE 14: Discerning Your Calling — Part 1

A couple of years ago, I sat in a room with about 50 cross-cultural workers living in South Asia — veterans, people with 20+ years on the field. We asked the ones who stayed: what kept you here? Every single one of them said the same thing: calling. Not strategy, not a great organization — a deep sense that God had called them to a specific people, a specific work, and hadn't released them yet. 

I know that people going to the field for the first time know they need a calling. But often they're searching for it so much that they don't even go — because they don't know what it looks like, or how to define it, or even what a calling actually is. So that's what I'm talking about in this two-part series.

In this episode I cover:

• What apostolic yearning is and how to recognize it in yourself
• What apostolic conviction is and why one long-term worker said he'd rather see conviction than calling
• The difference between spiritual gifting and personality (and why it matters)
• Why ordinary people — not superstars — are the ones who end up on the field
• A practical listening prayer exercise you can do today
• What to do with your language fears

This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Part 2 — Called to a Who, Not a Where — drops next week.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Free Chapter 9 download — Wrestling With Calling, Gifting and Personalities:
• Across the Street and Around the World book:
• Uncharted Mission — stories of workers discovering and living out their calling:
• The Raw Mission Podcast